1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to flying discs, and to items with them.
2. Description of Related Art
The prior art discloses a wide variety of flying discs, flying objects, and toys, e.g. those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,799,616; 5,553,570; and 6,073,588; pending application Ser. No. 09/592,976 filed Jun. 12, 2000; pending application entitled xe2x80x9cFlying Disc with Compact Discxe2x80x9d filed May 23, 2001 naming McClung, III and Van Natter III as inventors; and in the prior art cited in these applications and patentsxe2x80x94all of which are incorporated fully herein for all purposes.
The present invention, in certain embodiments discloses a flying disc made, e.g., from cardboard. In certain aspects, a portion or portions around the disc periphery are folded and/or bent down. In one aspect these portions extend continuously completely around the discs perimeter.
Cardboard, plastic or similar material which is sufficiently rigid may be used for the disc body so that the disc body will remain flat or substantially flat in flight. In certain aspects the disc is generally square, rectangular, triangular, pentagonal, quadragonal, hexagonal, septagonal, octagonal, oval, or ciruclar as viewed from above, but it may have any shape (as viewed from above or below) which serves as the body for the flying disc. Any such shape may have one or more cut-out portions. The folded or bent portions may be in contact with, not be interconnected with or interlocked with adjacent portions; or, alternatively, these portions may contact each other, be taped together, be interconnected, and/or be interlocked with each other.
In one aspect such a disc is made by cutting out, tearing out, or punching out a disc piece with the desired shape from a larger piece of plastic, paper, foam board, fiberboard, kraft paper, cardboard, etc. Slits, weakened areas, grooves, indentations, and/or cuts are then made around the discs perimeter (or this may be done before the disc piece is cut or punched out from the larger piece of material). A portion or portions of the disc (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, or more) between pairs of slits etc. are then folded down. These slits may, in certain aspects, point generally toward a center of the disc. Alternatively, weakened or slit lines marked (e.g. marked in ink) on top of the disc around its circumference (e.g. which do not point at the disc center on a point rather at two points on the disc""s perimeter) provide lines down from which a part of the disc body can be bent or folded to provide the portion or portions projecting down from the disc body to facilitate its flight. In one particular aspect this produces an intermittent lip around the disc perimeter that facilitates the flight of the disc (as compared to a flat piece of material with no such lip or portions). Alternatively, parts of the disc are folded or bent down around the disc perimeter without the aid of slots, marks, etc.
In one embodiment two (or more) discs are connected together. In one such multi-disc assembly, two such discs are connected face-to-face so that the slits or cuts in the downward projecting edge of one disc are offset from those of the other disc. In another aspect a first disc with the intermittent lip of folded-down portions is connected to and on top of a disc (or discs) with no such portions.
In another embodiment a secondary piece of material is connected face-to-face, on top of or beneath, a disc as described above. Such a secondary piece may be any desired shape and adds weight and/or stability and facilitates flight of a disc with the lip of the disc (the lip that includes the folded or bent down portions) on the lower side of the disc in flight. Alternatively any weight or weights may be connected to a disc to facilitate its flight (e.g., but not limited to, to facilitate disc flight so that the disc flies flat rather than turning, twisting or flipping over in flight) and/or to stabilize it.
In one particular embodiment the cardboard used to produce a disc according to the present invention is cut out of a box, as may be the secondary piece, or multiple discs of a multi-disc disc.
The disc and/or secondary piece may be cut from any suitable cardboard, foam board, thick paper, plastic, rigid material, or box or container made from these materials. In a particular aspect the disc and/or secondary piece are cut out or punched out from a cardboard pizza box. The outline of the disc body and/or of the secondary piece (and/or of multiple discs) may be printed or otherwise drawn or embossed on the box. Lines may be included to indicate where the material is to be folded, bent, torn or cut to form the portions of the lip that are folded down. Depending on the size of the box, and the desired disc size, multiple discs and secondary pieces may be torn, punched-out or cut from a single box. Alternatively, a box may be perforated or otherwise cut or weakened along the outlines of the disc(s) and/or secondary pieces to ease separation of them from the box. In certain aspects one or more portions of a secondary piece or of a second disc are formed, sized and configured to engage, interlock with, or fit into corresponding slits, openings, engagement recesses, or locking cutouts on a primary disc body. Such engagement etc. apparatus may be used with or without other ways to fasten a secondary piece or additional disc to a primary disc [including, but not limited to, with glue, adhesive, staple(s), brad(s), screw(s), releasably cooperating hook/loop fastener material [e.g. but not limited to Velcro (TM) material; tape; and/or string or thread]. Similarly a weight or weights may be connected to a primary disc according to the present invention with or without a secondary piece.
For use in the dark any disc, weight, or secondary piece may have one or more pieces of xe2x80x9cglow in the darkxe2x80x9d material or reflective material on it and/or one or more light sticks and/or battery or solar powered lights (such items and materials referred to collectively herein as xe2x80x9clight materialxe2x80x9d).
In one aspect a box from which a disc or secondary piece is taken may be used as a target and/or container at which a disc or discs are thrown. In one particular embodiment, a box or part of a box from which a disc is taken is used as a target. In one aspect, the newly-created opening (from which the disc was removed) is used as a target. In one aspect one or more additional discs is cut out or punched out from a first disc so that a smaller disc (or discs) is created that can more easily fly through the box opening corresponding to the first disc. Optionally, any such opening may be enlarged so that a disc may pass through it or a disc thus removed from a box may be reduced in size so it will pass through the opening.
In one particular aspect of the present invention a dual disc includes a first disc with a disc body with a peripheral lip and a groove or recess in the lip. This groove or recess is configured and sized for releasable receipt therein of the lip of a second disc. In one aspect such a dual disc combination is used as a container for an object or objects in a space between the two discs.
Any secondary piece (or secondary disc) or pieces and/or disc body may have indicia thereon, including, but not limited to, identification and/or scoring indicia. One primary disc may have connected thereto a plurality of secondary pieces on top and/or on bottom thereof.
For any disc according to the present invention for which a slit, perforated portion and/or weakened portion is provided for facilitating folding or bending of a disc periphery portion, such folding or bending may be done by folding or bending the disc material upwardly or downwardly (when the disc is held horizontally flat prior to such folding or bending). All folded portions may be folded down or up; or one or more folded portions may be up and one or more folded portions down.
What follows are some of, but not all, the objects of this invention. In addition to the specific objects stated below for at least certain preferred embodiments of the invention, other objects and purposes will be readily apparent to one of skill in this art who has the benefit of this invention""s teachings and disclosures. It is, therefore, an object of at least certain preferred embodiments of the present invention to provide:
New, useful, unique, efficient, nonobvious flying discs and/or flyers, which in one aspect have one or more peripheral portions thereof folded or bent down and/or up from a main disc body;
Such discs taken from a larger piece of material which in one particular aspect is a cardboard box or part thereof; and
Two or more such discs taken from a larger piece of material.
Certain embodiments of this invention are not limited to any particular individual feature disclosed here, but include combinations of them distinguished from the prior art in their structures and functions. Features of the invention have been broadly described so that the detailed descriptions that follow may be better understood, and in order that the contributions of this invention to the arts may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional aspects of the invention described below and which may be included in the subject matter of the claims to this invention. Those skilled in the art who have the benefit of this invention, its teachings, and suggestions will appreciate that the conceptions of this disclosure may be used as a creative basis for designing other structures, methods and systems for carrying out and practicing the present invention. The claims of this invention are to be read to include any legally equivalent devices or methods which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
The present invention recognizes and addresses the previously-mentioned problems and long-felt needs and provides a solution to those problems and a satisfactory meeting of those needs in its various possible embodiments and equivalents thereof. To one skilled in this art who has the benefits of this invention""s realizations, teachings, disclosures, and suggestions, other purposes and advantages will be appreciated from the following description of preferred embodiments, given for the purpose of disclosure, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The detail in these descriptions is not intended to thwart this patent""s object to claim this invention no matter how others may later disguise it by variations in form or additions of further improvements.